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UN’s Guterres warns against ‘sleepwalking’ into war over North Korea/node/1208756/world

UN’s Guterres warns against ‘sleepwalking’ into war over North Korea

Above, the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea hosts a reception in honor of the contributors of the successful test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15 in this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on December 13. (KCNA via Reuters)

UN’s Guterres warns against ‘sleepwalking’ into war over North Korea

TOKYO: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, warning against the danger of “sleepwalking” into war, said on Thursday that Security Council resolutions on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs must be fully implemented by Pyongyang and other countries.
Guterres made the comments to reporters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo just days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions.
The White House said Wednesday that no negotiations could be held with North Korea until it improves its behavior. The White House has declined to say whether President Donald Trump, who has taken a tougher rhetorical line toward Pyongyang, gave approval to Tillerson’s overture.
“It is very clear that the Security Council resolutions must be fully implemented first of all by North Korea but by all other countries whose role is crucial to ... achieve the result we all aim at, which is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Guterres said.
Guterres added that Security Council unity was also vital “to allow for the possibility of diplomatic engagement” that would allow denuclearization to take place.
“The worst possible thing that could happen is for us all to sleepwalk into a war that might have very dramatic circumstances,” he said.
Japan says now is the time to keep up maximum pressure on Pyongyang, not start talks on the North’s missile and nuclear programs. China and Russia, however, have welcomed Tillerson’s overture.
Abe, who spoke to reporters with Guterres, reiterated that dialogue needed to be meaningful and aimed at denuclearization.
“We fully agreed that the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is indispensable for the peace and stability of the region,” Abe said.
Tillerson’s overture came nearly two weeks after North Korea said it had successfully tested a breakthrough intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire US mainland within range. In September, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the second to fly over Japan in less than a month.
North Korea appears to have little interest in negotiations with the United States until it has developed the ability to hit the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, something most experts say it has still not proved.
UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, who visited Pyongyang last week, said on Tuesday senior North Korean officials did not offer any type of commitment to talks, but he believes he left “the door ajar.”

US reviews report of imports from forced labor in China camp

Updated 19 December 2018

AP

December 19, 2018 00:00

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BEIJING: The US government said Tuesday that it is reviewing reports of forced labor at a Chinese detention camp where ethnic minorities must give up their religion and language and may be subject to political indoctrination.US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that reporting by The Associated Press and other media “for the first time appears to link the internment camps identified in Western China to the importation of goods produced by forced labor by a US company.”The AP tracked shipments from a factory in a detention camp in China’s Xinjiang region to Badger Sportswear in North Carolina. The company ships clothing to universities, colleges and schools around the United States.Following the reports, Badger said that it had suspended business with the Chinese supplier and was investigating.The Washington-based Workers Rights Consortium, which has agreements with many educational institutions to make sure the products they sell on campus are ethically manufactured, said that “forced labor of any kind is a severe violation of university codes of conduct.”It’s against US law to import products of forced labor. Customs and Border Protection said it is part of its mission to enforce “both laws to protect individuals from forced labor and our Nation’s economy from businesses profiting from this form of modern slavery.”